Four Months of Wonder: Art and A Featured Project by Our Scholars

Harlem built a robot from blocks, named Redlight. When he was asked, "What could Redlight do?" he said, "It could play Red Light, Green Light outside with the children."

So immediately, Ms. Tiffany put a sign next to it that read, “Harlem made a robot that plays Red Light, Green Light,” and placed it right beside his invention. I told him, “You’re a Black inventor.”

For Valentine’s Day, each child made a love token for their family. They were asked, “Why do you love your family?”

The hands represent each child as an individual, and each child handpicked a heart to give to their loved ones.

Writing Makes Perfect!

Each morning, our scholars in Room 4, known as The Adventures, use the sign-in book to practice and improve their literacy and printing skills.

This daily routine not only enhances their ability to read and write but also fosters a sense of responsibility and ownership in their learning. By signing in, they develop confidence in their abilities and take pride in their progress. It's a wonderful way to start the day and build foundational skills that will serve them well in the future.

Class 3 Applesauce Project

After a visit from Mr. Andy (a volunteer that reads to the class weekly) he shared the various things you can do with apples and concluded with an applesauce recipe. The class and teachers were excited about making applesauce with Mr. Andy’s recipe. Mrs. Nicole took two apples and placed them in a crockpot with ½ spoon of cinnamon and let them cook while the class rested. After snack each student washed their hands, put gloves on, got a paper towel, and a teaspoon. Ms. Lul and Mrs. Nicole peeled the skin off the apples. Each student scooped ½ cup of cooked apple and cinnamon onto their snack tray. The students then measured and added ½ teaspoon of sugar, onto their cooked apple and cinnamon. They the smashed and stirred their apple mixture.  A student said, “Do these apples taste different?” The teacher said let’s find out. The teachers gave each student a portion of an uncooked apple to taste first. The students spoke about how the uncooked apple was hard and crunchy and the cooked apples were soft and smushy. Another said, “I think I’m not going to like this one because it doesn’t look like the other one (we had applesauce for breakfast a few days before).” The teacher said I know a way we can find out. She placed 2 teaspoonful of the applesauce that they usually have for breakfast on a small tray for each student to try. After trying the bottled applesauce, the students tasted the applesauce they made and then they gave feedback. The student that said they didn’t think they were going to like it said, “I like this more! It’s way better.” Another student said, “I’m going to make this a lot at my house.” Our next steps for this project will be creating a graph showing the similarities and differences between the uncooked apple, cooked apples, and bottled applesauce.

First Quarter Reflection

Success has many faces every child blooms, and every family succeeds. We envision a community in which every child begins their educational journey with the skills necessary to succeed. We move toward that vision, one child at a time.  Each year, teachers work hard to help measure and impact each child through daily observations and progress reports. While our scholars are busy learning through play and teachers are busy observing and noting their daily observations that tells a story of impact and success on each and every one of our scholars. We are excited as we move past the first quarter of school, to see the development that has occurred thus far. As we prepare for winter break, we look forward to what the new year brings.

In November our leadership team had the opportunity to go to Nashville Tennessee to attend the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) conference. The keynote speaker Dr. Pryor spoke eloquently regarding his personal early learning experience with a teacher who nourished his gift by giving him 5 minutes at the end of each class to tell his jokes to classmates. Dr. Pryor attributed the teachers actions to him being a successful standup comedian today. After hearing about his experiences with two of his early learning teachers, one who left a negative impact on him and one who empowered him, the room of 7,500 educators was moved to tears. What we do everyday with our little scholars can make or break them as adults and the early learning years of development are crucial to making a positive impact on our scholars.

We thoroughly enjoyed the conference and brought back good information to share and impart to our staff.

Frist Place Holiday Spirit

Hello All,

The month of December was amazing! Our family events entailed giving out cold weather essentials to ones who needed them, thanks to Zumiez for our donation of hats,  gloves, socks, coats and blankets. We greatly appreciate the annual donations so that we can distribute them to the families in our community.

Our little scholars had an winter concert where they presented theme related songs they have been learning in their classrooms. “Winter Wonderland” and “Celebrations Around the World” were the themes this month, our teachers related the themes to the children through songs, stories and skits. They are to be commended for a job well done. We look forward to more exciting activities when we return from winter break, be safe and enjoy your family.

Happy Holidays to Everyone!

Culture Night!

Hello Families, the first quarter of the year has been great, our scholars are busy learning and developing. The month of November we had “Culture Night” our first in-person event of the school year. Families came together as their children presented something related to their culture. 

Each child’s teacher had  presentations representing each child’s cultural information. Our families were encouraged to wear clothing representing their culture, and we had a fantastic time.  Thank you all for coming out to make “Culture Night” an enjoyable experience. We learned about the different cultures of families that make up the First Place preschool learning environment. Children and families danced and participated in different activities in their classrooms, then we came together for a delicious gumbo dinner sponsored by chef Eduardo “June Baby”, we were so honored for his generosity to us. Jamaal Jones the owner of Osmosis Media, generously agreed to capture content, footage, and highlights of our family Culture Night event and we appreciated his work.

Welcome to the 2022-23 School Year!

This year at First Place Early Learning Center, our goal is to continue to promote every child's individual development using an appropriate mix of learning activities that possess values that encourage educational excellence. We use a research based curriculum that encourage child lead activities that surrounds themes and studies for them to explore.

As Early Childhood Educators, it is our responsibility to know the stages children go through at different ages. We have had some challenging times our children has faced in the last couple of years, we are going to engage in social emotional activities using the Second Step curriculum to help our children navigate through what they are feeling and going through.

Children grow and develop rapidly in the first five years of life. Every day routines and play times provide rich opportunities for young children to learn. We are here to support our children with  practical and enjoyable ways to help them learn as they play and explore their world. To guide their play and be creative, while growing up healthy, strong, and happy.

We look forward to an amazing school year and will be glad to partner with you as we develop our young brilliant scholars.

-Carolyn Brown, First Place Early Learning Director

First Place Fall Activities

The little scholars are busy learning and having fun doing Fall related activities, on “Festive Friday”, We had a pajama party and everyone including teachers wore pajamas for the day.  The adventures class had a “poppin” pajama party with popcorn and a movie, this included dancing with balloon animals along with Ice cream floats and treat bags to take home. They also had a science activity with  growing pets in water and each child named their pet. How exciting!

We’re looking forward to our “Culture Night”, where our teachers are preparing cultural related activities from every family culture in their classroom and families will share something from their culture in a virtual setting for everyone to enjoy. After the “Family Culture” night  scholars are creating thankful trees and sharing how many things they are thankful for.

We are so happy to have such a eager group of scholars that are excited about learning.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Welcome Back First Place Families

The beginning of the school year is off to a great start, our first 4 weeks of school were spent introducing classroom rules and routines. While the teaching staff were super excited about heading back to in-person teaching, they also had some apprehensions about how to do it safely.

Mr. Tracy and Ms. Stacy came up with ways that are working great for social distancing while allowing the children to play and stay safe. All of our scholars are busy learning and having fun daily, with all safety procedures in place. Our scholars have adapted to the new procedures like the champs they are! We thank our parents for teaming up with us to make our learning environment healthy and safe.

First Place Preschool Graduation 2021

A word of thanks to our families.

We made it, thanks to you!

This past year has challenged us in ways we never could have imagined. Yet, the commitment of our First Place community to support the education of all students never faltered. Your generous support during distance learning to the First Place teachers helped all students have the best experience possible in these most unusual circumstances as we remained in virtual learning models for this school year.  I can’t thank you enough for partnering to support the learning of our little scholars.

A final word to First Place students: Thank you for all your hard work throughout the school year.  I am so honored you are a part of our Preschool; you made me proud to watch you learn and grow over this school year.  I am grateful for your joy, and amazing eagerness to learn.  Best wishes to our graduating students on their way to kindergarten, whom I will miss greatly—please come back and visit. 

We will continue learning through our summer program, for those who will not be continuing through the summer, have a safe and happy summer break.

Thank you for a wonderful and productive school year. 

Until next school year, here’s wishing you love, laughter, and learning.

Mrs. Carol

Spring Activity Boxes

First Place Preschool would like to thank DEEL for the fun filled learning activity boxes. Our scholars will be learning, exploring and having fun this Spring! We appreciate your partnership.

First Place Distance Learning a Success

Greetings First Place Families,

I hope all is well, during this uncertain time. I want to thank everyone for your support, patience, flexibility, and understanding during this time of distance learning. This school year we embarked on a new journey--Virtual School. Zoom, has become a household name, and the world of video conferencing has been leveraged heavily for our educators to connect with their classes and deliver content to students. This has brought on its own set of challenges for teaching as everyone learns how to operate within this video conferencing world.

First Place educators have established a great learning partnership with all families and we appreciate the sacrifices you have made during this course of this school year.  It brings me great joy observing the Zoom classes every morning, seeing your children develop learn and grow. Our teachers have adjusted from in-person classroom teaching to holding daily virtual learning classes, and I must say they are doing an awesome job! Ms. Stay is the lead teacher for classroom 3, read about her experience below, in her own words.

We look forward to continuing to work together providing distance learning for the duration of this school year.

Carol Brown

Early Learning Director

Ms. Stacy’s Experience (in her own words):

When the pandemic hit as a teacher of young children these thoughts plagued my mind. How can I  continue to reach the children that I have in my class? How am I going to meet their social emotional needs? How can I teach them affectively through a computer screen? How am I going to keep the students and families engaged until this pandemic is over? Here’s the thing I love most about teaching and it’s that even in person you never know what each day will bring even when it’s planned out. I realized I just had to stretch my mind and my other teaching skills to meet the needs of my students and families. The thoughts that plagued me at the beginning of this pandemic I now use as fuel to ensure that each student is still taught based on their individual learning style, in order to meet or exceed their developmental skills levels. I must say that I am having a great time teaching even now. My students are writing their first names, numbers and letter. The students are engaging in the stories that are being read. We are now doing Art, Science and Cooking Projects all virtually. My class is ready and eager to learn daily what more could a teacher teaching virtually ask for?    

“Our strength is greatest in the toughest times if we don’t give up.”

-Stacy Brown (Green)